Page 39 - 2019 September 12th Christie's New York Chiense Art Masterpieces of Chinese Gold and Silver

A SUPERB AND IMPORTANT

GOLD OPENWORK CHAPE

金蟠虺紋刀鞘首

Robert D. Mowry
Alan J. Dworsky Curator of Chinese Art Emeritus,
Harvard Art Museums, and Senior Consultant, Christie’s
毛瑞
哈佛大學藝術博物館亞洲部榮譽主任
暨佳士得高級顧問

Though it superfcially resembles a pendant with openwork decoration and turquoise inlays,
this exquisite gold object is actually a chape that originally would have been afixed to the end
of a scabbard as a protective cap. Made in northwest China in the sixth-to-ffth century BC, this
exceptionally rare sword ftting, as such paraphernalia are generically characterized, gives insight
into the rarefed world and sophisticated taste of the rich and powerful of the early historic period.

Apart from bows and arrows, the principal weapons during the Shang (c. 1700–c. 1050 BC) and
Western Zhou (c. 1050–771 BC) periods were such long-handled pole-weapons as the ge (dagger-
axe), yue (battle axe), mao and shu (spears), and ji (combined spear and dagger-axe). By the Eastern
Zhou period (771–256 BC), however, the dao (dagger) and jian (sword) had replaced the ge and yue
as the preferred weapons for hand-to-hand combat.
The basic components of a sword or dagger include the blade and the handle, which usually is
termed the hilt but occasionally is called the grip. A short cross piece known as the cross guard, or
sword guard, distinguishes the hilt from the blade, elegantly conceals the join of the two, and stops
the fngers from slipping from the hilt onto the sharp blade. Termed a dao and known already in
Western Zhou times and perhaps earlier, the dagger was introduced into the repertory of Chinese
weapons earlier than the sword, which is called a jian and which had been introduced at least by
the Spring and Autumn period (771–475 BC), as witnessed by the famous Sword of Goujian, which
was discovered in Hubei province in 1965 and is believed to date to 510 BC. The dagger—also
called a saber in English, and sometimes a broadsword—not only is shorter than a sword but is
single-edged; by contrast, the sword, occasionally termed a long sword, is double-edged. The
blades of both daggers and swords were of bronze in early times but typically were of wrought iron
or steel by Western Han times (206 BC–AD 9), the transition occurring during the late Spring and
Autumn and Warring States (475–221 BC) periods.

此件金器精巧無比，乍看猶如鑲綠松石的鏤雕佩 格」，它巧妙地遮掩了柄與刃的接口，亦可防止手
飾，實則為刀鞘首，它原應安在劍鞘末端，用於護 指滑至鋒利的劍刃。刀在西周或之前己見諸記載，
裹鞘之底部。此物是公元前六至五世紀中原西北 在中國兵器家族中，它的誕生早於劍，而劍則濫
部的製品，乃刀劍常規裝具之一，通過這件珍罕之 觴於春秋時代 (公元前770至476年)，就此可證諸
作，我們終可一窺早期達官貴人生活之高雅和品味 1965年湖北省出土的越王勾踐寶劍，其斷代為公元
之精緻。 前510年。刀 (英文除了「dagger」之外，也有馬刀
除弓箭之外，商代 (約公元前1700至1050年) 和西 「saber」或腰刀「broadsword」等說法) 既比劍
周 (約公元前1050至771年) 年間的主要兵器是戈、 短，且為單刃，而劍 (或名「長劍」) 則屬於雙刃兵
鉞、矛、殳、戟等長柄刺兵器。但時至東周 (公元前 器。早期刀劍的刃均為青銅，但入西漢 (公元前206
770至256年)，刀劍逐漸取代戈鉞，成為了首選的 至公元8年) 之後，最常用的材質已變為熟鐵或鋼，
手持兵器。 其更迭過渡應發生於春秋末年和戰國時代 (公元前
刀劍均含刃與柄兩個基本元素，後者間或亦稱 475至221年)。
「把」。柄與刃之間以一狹長配件相隔，此乃「劍
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